<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
+ <item>
+ <title>Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 25 Jun 2013 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
+perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
+working. One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
+needed to get the hardware on my computer working. Most often this
+affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
+controller or the ethernet card. Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
+<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
+including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
+process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
+they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
+debian packages. Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+# isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
+info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
+info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
+info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
+info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
+info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
+firmware-ipw2x00
+firmware-ipw2x00
+Preconfiguring packages ...
+Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
+(Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
+Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
+Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
+#
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
+printed instead:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+# isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
+info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules. exiting
+#
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
+me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
+
+<p>So, how does it work? It look at the set of currently loaded
+kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
+the firmware files listed in the module meta-information. Next, it
+download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
+the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
+requested firmware file. If the package is in the non-free section, a
+non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
+<tt>apt-get install</tt>. The end result is a slightly better working
+machine.</p>
+
+<p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
+this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
+finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
+#655507</a>. There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
+firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
+from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>The value of a good distro wide test suite...</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 22 Jun 2013 07:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
+Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
+which check that services are running, working, and return the
+expected results. It runs automatically just after the first boot on
+test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
+installations (using non-test ISOs). It test that the LDAP service is
+operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
+online resizable, etc, etc. And it check that the PXE service is
+configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
+
+<p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
+Edu Wheezy release. These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
+complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
+happen all the needed packages need to be on them. Thanks to our test
+suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
+cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
+When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
+using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
+working packages to get it working. And the packages changed name
+from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
+debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
+packages during installation. Without our test suite, I suspect we
+would never have discovered this before release. Now it is fixed
+right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
+
+<p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
+administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
+test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
+any errors are detected. This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
+the problem.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
+please join us on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
+irc.debian.org</a> and the
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
+list.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
+globe. And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
+#debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
+worked. We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
+help us with translations. And today I managed to get an interview
+with him, to learn more about him.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
+which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
+party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
+friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
+country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
+community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
+began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
+constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
+field.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
+provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
+activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
+of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
+software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
+the only one we have in our country.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
+even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
+it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
+educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
+love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
+technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
+ways to contribute.</p>
+
+<p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
+configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
+haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
+areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
+software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
+one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
+environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
+for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
+from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
+have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
+maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
+took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
+Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
+time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
+with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
+out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
+it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
+availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
+scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
+only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
+lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
+project.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
+disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
+project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
+a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story. I'd like to see
+Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
+ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
+lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
+opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
+to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
+
+<p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
+with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
+to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
+on.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
+daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
+am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
+Enlightenment project a lot!),
+<a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
+use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
+<a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
+get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
+stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
+now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
+that:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
+
+<li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
+ experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
+ of teenagers more?</li>
+
+<li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
+ be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
+ other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
+ them!)</li>
+
+<li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
+ lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
+ person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
+example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
+it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
+people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
+very hard to convert against their will.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 09:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>There is a certain cross-over between the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+project</a> and <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">the Edubuntu
+project</a>, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
+effort between the projects. One person with a foot in both camps is
+Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I'm a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
+days vary quite a bit since I'm involved in too many things. As I'm
+getting older I'm learning how to focus a bit more :)</p>
+
+<p>I'm also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
+opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
+each other.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I've been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
+first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
+[Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
+London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
+Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
+it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
+was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
+day I have a big todo list backlog that I'm catching up with. I think
+over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
+been gradually improving, although I think there's a lot that we could
+still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I'm sure
+we'll get there one day.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
+it for pages, but in essence I love that it's a very honest project
+that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
+very high quality work.</p>
+
+<p>I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
+set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
+with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
+helps to standardise installations in schools so that it's easier for
+community members and commercial suppliers to support.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I had to re-type this one a few times because I'm trying to
+separate "disadvantages" from "areas that need improvement" (which is
+what I originally rambled on about)</p>
+
+<p>The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
+project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
+think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
+content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
+on. When you've been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
+years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
+concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
+more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I'd love to be one
+myself but I'm already so over-committed that it's just not possible
+currently.</p>
+
+<p>I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
+for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
+their skills in-house. I'm often saddened to see how much money
+educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don't
+have access to after the service has ended and they could've gotten so
+much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
+autonomous.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
+Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
+some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
+particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
+so I suppose I'll soon be able to regain that disk space :)</p>
+
+<p>Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
+git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I've been torn on
+which desktop environment I like and I'm taking some refuge in Xfce
+while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
+Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
+it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
+up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
+X.</p>
+
+<p>I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
+using Norton Commander in the early 90's and it stuck (I think the
+people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don't know how to use
+it :p)
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
+many cases it's appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
+don't think that there's any particular moral or ethical problem with
+that.</p>
+
+<p>I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
+problems in educational institutions and it's just a shame not taking
+advantage of that.</p>
+
+<p>I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
+some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
+Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
+general concepts. I think that's very unproductive because firstly, MS
+Office's interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
+that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
+best solution for them.</p>
+
+<p>To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
+educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
+make a decision that would work for them.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2013 11:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
+the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
+or on first boot from the hard disk. I've seen it once in a while the
+last few years, but only recently understood the cause. I've seen it
+on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
+The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops. The system to
+control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
+turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead. I do
+not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
+i915 driver used by the
+<a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
+EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
+
+<p>The problem can be worked around two ways. Either by adding
+i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
+/etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
+option when it load the i915 kernel module. On Debian and Ubuntu, it
+can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
+
+<pre>
+echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
+update-initramfs -u -k all
+</pre>
+
+<p>Since March 2012 there is
+<a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
+mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
+hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
+brightness setting automatically. To use it, one need to add a row in
+<a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
+intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
+<tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
+struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
+number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
+number.</p>
+
+<p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
+-vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
+ 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
+ (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
+ Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
+ Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
+ ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
+ Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
+ <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
+ Latency: 0
+ Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
+ Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
+ Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
+ Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
+ Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
+ Capabilities: <access denied>
+ Kernel driver in use: i915
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
+ ...
+ /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
+ { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
+ ...
+}
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
+<tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
+invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
+<a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
+(at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
+developers. But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
+yet shown up in
+<a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
+web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
+emails from non-subscribers. Because of this, I sent my patch also to
+the Debian bug tracking system instead as
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
+sure the patch is not lost.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
+with this problem working properly with Linux. If you use Gnome, your
+worries should be over at this point. But if you use KDE, there is
+something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
+the screen during login. I've reported it to Debian as
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
+have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
+this. Perhaps you can help? Perhaps you know what the Gnome
+developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
+developers? Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
+during login? If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
+you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
+
+<p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
+acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
+as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
+leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
+backlight.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
+today. This is the release announcement:</p>
+
+<p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
+2013-06-10</strong></p>
+
+<p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
+alpha2, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
+
+<p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
+Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
+out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
+network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
+services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
+and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
+environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
+the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
+installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
+database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
+directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
+desktop contains
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
+than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
+the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
+and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
+
+<p>This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
+this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
+Squeeze release.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
+<li>Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
+<li>Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
+<li>Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
+<li>Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
+<li>Updated translation of the installation.
+<li>New Romanian translation.
+<li>Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
+<li>Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
+<li>Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
+<li>New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
+<li>Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
+<li>More testsuite tests.
+<li>Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
+<li>Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration.
+
+<li>Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
+LTSP in Wheezy.</li>
+
+<li>Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
+them up with GOsa².</li>
+
+<li>Update IMAP server setup. </li>
+
+<li>Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
+slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
+entered password). </li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.</li>
+
+<li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
+available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
+missing import feature).</li>
+
+<li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). </li>
+
+<li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
+own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
+unfixed.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
+
+<p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
+
+<li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
+
+<li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178
+<br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419</p>
+
+<p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
+
+<p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Is there a PHP expert in the building? Debian Edu need help!</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 5 Jun 2013 17:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
+We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
+hope to get released soon. The two problems require some with PHP
+skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
+the project:
+
+<ol>
+
+<li>It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
+ (slbackup-php) using the root user and password. This is
+ <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">BTS report #700257</a>.
+ This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
+ Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?</li>
+
+<li>It is not possible to "mass import" user lists in Gosa, neither
+ using ldif nor using CSV files. The feature was disabled after a
+ major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
+ This is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">BTS report
+ #698840</a>.</li>
+
+</ol>
+
+<p>If you can help us, please join us on IRC
+(<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
+irc.debian.org</a>) and provide patches via the BTS.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 4 Jun 2013 10:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>It has been a while since my last English
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+interview last November. But the developers and translators are still
+pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
+time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
+in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
+professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
+mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
+probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
+
+<p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
+and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
+packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
+Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
+then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
+manual.
+
+<p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
+virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
+shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
+how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
+
+<p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
+ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
+by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>. What pleased
+me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
+there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
+to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
+artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
+<a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
+movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
+<a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
+
+<p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
+Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
+beautiful project.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
+community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
+fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
+
+<p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
+distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
+of educational free software.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
+project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
+not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
+solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
+is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
+
+<p>One can find support from a company by looking at
+<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
+wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
+companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
+Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
+for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
+consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
+support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
+most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
+scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice. I am
+also using the mathematical software
+<a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about">Scilab</a> and
+<a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html">Sage</a> (built from
+source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
+
+<p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
+using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
+statistics?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
+university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/">R</a> and
+Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
+geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
+<a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig">kig</a> to do
+constructions in planar geometry
+
+<li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
+to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
+groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I like also
+<a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
+provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
+<a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My suggestions would be to</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
+
+<li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
+ well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
+ OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
+
+<li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
+
+<li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
+ system.</li>
+
+</ul>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Åpent møte på onsdag om bruken av Microsoft Exchange ved Universitetet i Oslo</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_pent_m_te_p__onsdag_om_bruken_av_Microsoft_Exchange_ved_Universitetet_i_Oslo.html</link>
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